bit.ly has announced a new service: bit.ly Pro. The Pro service provides custom short URLs powered by bit.ly. Publishers and bloggers will be able to use their own short domain names to point to pages on their sites. As part of our initial beta program, the bit.ly team is making custom URLs available to a limited number of large and medium-sized Web publishers and bloggers, including AOL, Associated Content, Bing, Clicker, The Daily Telegraph, foursquare, GDGT, Hot Potato, The Huffington Post, IGN.

"When you see a short URL like nyti.ms, you know the destination web site before clicking on the link. The service includes all the bit.ly features users and publishers have come to expect. Placing a simple "+" at the end of any bit.ly link (including these white-label, bit.ly-powered links) takes you to real-time information about that page and how it is being shared: how many people clicked on that particular link, where they came from, and more. For publishers, the new service allows them to keep their brand visible while maintaining access to bit.ly statistics," bit.ly wrote on a company's blog.

A real-time dashboard was also introduced, which provides publishers with even more information about their bit.ly traffic. It?s a real-time view of how a given publisher?s content is being distributed across networks like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace and services like email, SMS, and instant messenger.

Both parts of bit.ly Pro - the dashboard and the custom URL service - are currently free beta programs. For additional information visit http://bit.ly/.